[thesite] User Page (Signup) Done

[Madhu Menon]

At 12:16 PM 1/3/2002, Michele Foster typed these words:
>Head on over to t.e.o. (http://test.evolt.org), login, click on Edit Account
>(sidebar), upload a photo (NOTE, size restrictions) and enter a bio, update
>profile.
>
>Any other comments from anyone else?

Yeah.

1) I thought we were going to discuss the image dimensions on theforum. 
IMNSHO, 180*90 is really weird. People's faces are not in a 2:1 ratio. 
Don't believe me? Measure the length of your face and compare it to its 
width. It's more like 1:1.5 (although the shapes of faces vary - a lot)

I propose 120*140 instead.


2) I've also got a couple of minor issues with the "Options" checkboxes.

a) They're verbose.
"If this box is checked, you will receive notification when people comment 
on your articles." can be replaced with a simpler, "Notify me when people 
comment on my articles". We can safely assume that our audience knows that 
a checkbox needs to be checked (unlike my mother).

b) A checkbox is an affirmative UI element. (My term. Like it?) Always use 
a checkbox to say "yes" to doing something. Only shady sites use it to NOT 
do something. Remember how some sites say, "Check this if you do *not* want 
to receive mails from our sponsors"?

Therefore, I suggest we change the text to "Display my email address on the 
author information page" and leave it checked by default.


3) As for allowed HTML tags, I don't see a reason to allow all the tags 
used in articles. IMO, only the following will suffice:

<p>,<br>,<i>,<em>,<b>,<strong>,<a>


4) In the author's photo bit, change:

"Note that the image must be in "GIF" or "JPG" format, and must be exactly 
180 pixels wide by 90 pixels tall."

to bulleted points. Boldface "exactly".


5) Last question: what will be shown in the "author photo" section when a 
photo already exists? Will there be any indication that it does?

That's it for me. Sorry I haven't been able to test the photo uploading 
bit. I couldn't find any way to squeeze any of my photos into 180*90 
without cutting out parts of my face ;)

Madhu





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Madhu Menon
User Experience Consultant
e-mail: webguru at vsnl.net